The Sapling Guild
by AzureLeopard
Summary: We join Martyn (Inthelittlewood) on an epic adventure where he makes friends, enemies and tries to start The Kingdom Of The Saplings! Not a re-telling of his let's play.
1. The Preview

**First, I would like you to know that this is not a retelling of his let's play. Though it was originally intended to be. Second, I hope you enjoy!**

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Far away in the lands of Minecraftia, within the legendary Sapling Guild there is a young prince named Martyn Littlewood.

Being a Prince is hard but it is not without it's perks. Prince Martyn discovered, in his opinion, one of the best things in the universe. One day, whilst hiding from his maths teacher, he stumbled across a pitch-black tunnel which led out of the vast kingdom and away from the protective Dantes. To his surprise there was an everlasting forest spanning the north plains. He knew of it but, being a Prince, he didn't think about it much. He was too busy learning how to run a kingdom.

Now to a Prince, who spent all his life kept clean and safe, a place to run around and to get mucky was a dream come true. The Prince spent all day roaming the forest. He felt like a proper boy instead of a pampered Prince. He got thoroughly muddy, when the sun began to sink and the shadows became darker he made his way back into the kingdom before the monsters came out. After a brief meal with his parents he went to bed, dreaming of his adventures in the forest the next day.

That was how the next years of his life were spent, lessons from breakfast until three and then the rest of the day spent in the forest. Slowly, as the prince grew the forest grew around him. The forest taught him many lessons. One of the most important lessons learnt when the Prince was 14. He spent the afternoon in the forest as usual but he forgot about sunset. In the growing darkness he heard the whispering hiss of a forest spider. He picked up a large stick which had fallen off a tree and wielded it the best he could. He had been receiving lessons from the Dantes but he wasn't too sure if he could hold it off. The spider dropped down from a tree and lunged...

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**I hope you had fun reading that bit!  
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	2. The full story!

**Here is the rest of my story. I hope you enjoy and if time I will try to write a sequel!**

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Far away in the lands of Minecraftia, within the legendary Sapling Guild there is a young prince named Martyn Littlewood.

Being a Prince is hard but it is not without it's perks. Prince Martyn discovered, in his opinion, one of the best things in the universe. One day, whilst hiding from his maths teacher, he stumbled across a pitch-black tunnel which led out of the vast kingdom and away from the protective Dantes. To his surprise there was an everlasting forest spanning the north plains. He knew of it but, being a Prince, he didn't think about it much. He was too busy learning how to run a kingdom.

Now to a Prince, who spent all his life kept clean and safe, a place to run around and to get mucky was a dream come true. The Prince spent all day roaming the forest. He felt like a proper boy instead of a pampered Prince. He got thoroughly muddy, when the sun began to sink and the shadows became darker he made his way back into the kingdom before the monsters came out. After a brief meal with his parents he went to bed, dreaming of his adventures in the forest the next day.

That was how the next years of his life were spent, lessons from breakfast until three and then the rest of the day spent in the forest. Slowly, as the prince grew the forest grew around him. The forest taught him many lessons. One of the most important lessons learnt when the Prince was 14. He spent the afternoon in the forest as usual but he forgot about sunset. In the growing darkness he heard the whispering hiss of a forest spider. He picked up a large stick which had fallen off a tree and wielded it the best he could. He had been receiving lessons from the Dantes but he wasn't too sure if he could hold it off. The spider dropped down from a tree and lunged. The Prince fought back bravely and with a solid thunk, he slayed the spider. From that day on, the Prince began to try his best in all his lessons, especially combat. The Guild Master took him under his wing and taught him armed combat with swords and bows. He learnt that Dantes weren't everywhere and he would have to look after himself and his kingdom one day.

Everything changed when Martyn turned sixteen, his father (the King) confided to Martyn that war was heading towards the Kingdom. The reficules were becoming unruly and began to station troops on the borders. The Prince now had to spend his time in the court and the war room. He couldn't go to the forest anymore; his duty was to the kingdom. His heart wasn't truly in it. He couldn't sleep, the stress was getting to him. The Guild Master realised and took the Prince away one day to discuss the problem. The Guild Master told the king he was taking the Prince for a scouting decoy trip and really let the Prince spend the days in the forest playing and running and being free. The two days away from Kingdom were both the best and the worst days of his life... Before they reached the Kingdom walls a Dante rode out and informed the pair that the King and Queen had been assassinated, poisoned by the reficules. Prince Martyn had to become King Martyn. Thankfully, the Guild Master stepped in and told the Dantes and villagers that he would rule in place of Martyn until he was ready to take over.

The next years were no different for Martyn apart from the fact that his training had increased in areas such as politics and war tactics. His free time was in the courts with the ruling Guild Master. Over time, as Martyn began to understand what was going on, he realised that The Guild Master ruled his Kingdom effectively. The soldiers that patrolled and controlled the town were loyal to The Guild Master alone... They wouldn't follow him. Martyn began to pay more attention and began to make alliances with certain people who weren't connected to the Guild. One of them was the city planner and builder. With his help Martyn decided to set up his own Kingdom and imprison the Guild Master for taking over his people but the City Builder advised him to follow the Guild Master until he had enough money to begin his own Kingdom.

Prince Martyn was again in his favourite place, the forest. He was heading home again but decided at the last moment to take a detour to check out a ruin he spotted while on top of a tree. He entered the building again, seeing the remains of a basic set up. Out of the shadows he heard a voice say eerily 'Who goes there?' Martyn squared his shoulders and proclaimed "I am Prince Martyn of The Sapling Guild!" The voice replied "Little Princes shouldn't be in the forest." From a back room out stepped a boy in a dark hoodie. "My name is Toby. What are you doing in my den?"

Your den?" Prince Martyn asked warily, Toby wasn't quite frowning but he didn't look too happy for him to be there. "Yep my den. If you want access you have to beat me in a race." Toby took out a long, brown bandana from his pocket and walked to a distant tree. He tied it on and walked back and past Martyn to draw a line in the dirt. "We start here." The two boys lined up and Toby called out "Three, two, one GO!" The boys took off towards the tree when Martyn had an idea, he stuck his foot out and tripped Toby up and reached the tree first.

"You cheater! You tripped me!" proclaimed Toby. "I like ya though. You can keep it." gesturing to the long brown fabric in Martyn's hand. Martyn tied around his head, to push back his fringe which needed a cut soon. "Friends?" he asked hopefully. "Friends!" Toby confirmed.

Toby and Martyn played together every day and became the best of friends. When Martyn and Toby headed back to the den, a creeper was waiting for them. Thankfully, Martyn had been teaching Toby how to fight and together they defeated the creeper. After all of that excitement, Martyn headed back to kingdom only to find it ablaze. When Martyn asked a Dante he explained that the kingdom had fell, they had lost the war and the Guild Master had been captured. With tears in his eyes, Martyn grabbed Toby and the city builder. They ran as fast as their legs would take them, as far away from the burning kingdom as they could get until they reached a clearing. Even with Toby, Martyn knew they weren't strong enough to take on the reficules. The soldiers were no help, their loyalty didn't cover the ex-Prince. So as they made camp in the clearing, they tried to think of a way to save their old kingdom. The city planner, who was considered weak in the old kingdom for his pacifism, brought up the idea of making a new kingdom since the old one was slowly burning down.

That very night, drawn with a stick in the dirt next to the camp fire, they planned out the foundations of the new kingdom. Most of the resources could be gathered from the local area, so they didn't have to import material. The city planner gave them a rough guide to how much wood and stone each building would cost to build. Thankfully Toby, being the son of a local workman, knew the best ways to mine stone and cut wood.

They spent the next day cutting down trees to gather the wood. Martyn looked at the now empty fields, felt quite bad about it and began planting saplings and seeds to replenish the forest. Toby watched him planting all the saplings before turning around and saying "At this rate we will have more saplings than villagers... You will be the King of the Saplings and the kingdom shall be called The Kingdom Of The Saplings in your honour." "You will be King Of The Forest then. We shall rule over the mighty Kingdom Of The Saplings together." replied Martyn.

It was hard labour getting the resources for the kingdom. Toby and Martyn spent all day working before collapsing at night. Doing the same every morning.

It was Toby who found the guy. He was dressed in a similar outfit to the wood cutters at the old Kingdom. He was bleeding from one arm and held a broken sword in his hand. The man must have taken shelter under an outcropping of rocks only to be attacked by the monsters that appear during the night. He seemed alive but knocked out. The two boys dragged the man back to the camp and tried to heal him the best they could. It wasn't until the next day before the man woke up. Upon hearing the city planner talk about the new kingdom, he asked the two boys, when they came back to the clearing, if he could become the master forester. They agreed and the man, when healed, went on to become the master forester for the kingdom. Progress was now achieved faster.

After a while the forester they found began helping them out more and more. One night after collecting the resources needed, and eating a hearty meal of hoe-vis and pork chops, the forester asked the two boys a question. "I don't know how to ask this but my brother in law was in an accident, they don't expect him to make it and I would like to bring my sister and her two children here? My sister used to be a chef but later learnt farming." Martyn smiled at the man "Course she can! More the merrier!" The man left dinner to write a letter to his sister.

The next couple of days were dedicated to making temporary housing for the new comers. A week later the sister, came with a couple of chests and spent a couple days getting settled in before starting a wheat farm just outside the planned kingdom walls.

The forester and his sister wasn't the only people who joined the camp. Slowly homeless and refugees joined the numbers and as the walls were beginning to go up a sad event occurred. Someone had stolen some of the Kingdom funds! Martyn and Toby had no idea who but it did bring up a point about the lack of laws.

Using some of the iron collected from strip mining in the mines, a new jail was created. With the jail came the meeting of all the villagers to set out the laws. There were the obvious ones such as murder, arson and assault but the tricky laws of thieving and fraud caused disputes and arguments. In the end the two boys had to become their usual joking selves and put an end to all the fighting by setting the rules themselves. Martyn realised that even though they had law they still needed people to enforce them. Out of the first couple immigrants, Martyn and Toby chose their most trusted villagers to become the military in the town and each had a basic leather armour set and at least a stone sword each. Within a week the culprit was caught and now resides in the jail.

The next buildings to be planned out for was a blacksmith and court system as well as more accommodations since the kingdom now had twenty people living in it.

The small number of men and women policing the walls, makeshift camps and farms was enough. That was until spiders who survived from previous attacks realised that they could attack as a group and make off with food and occasionally livestock. The main problem was the fact that now the walls were up and there was more housing and farms the armed service was too slow to react. If they wanted to work they needed to have a central base.

It was Toby who designed the layout. It was basically a tower with different height look out points. Martyn realised there weren't enough armed people to both man the tower and patrol. So the first competitions were held. Archery, armed fighting and wrestling were the competitions. Winners held the first paid job of the Kingdom; Trainers. It was decided that their jobs was to, each, train 3 people and over see the military aspect of the kingdom. The archery was won by an eagle eyed young lady, who recently joined the Kingdom to escape an arranged marriage. The wrestling was won by a short stout chap that Toby swore was part dwarven. The armed fighting was won by an ex- soldier who left the old kingdom because of reasons he didn't specify.

In order to accommodate the base and training grounds as well as the armoury and barracks. A whole month's work was dedicated to creating these buildings. The spiders were no problem now. Recently, gatherers and repairmen had reported missing parts of the Kingdom... But that is another story...

So finally, the kingdom was taking shape. The citizens were happy and for the most part self-sufficient so Toby and Martyn were spending a rare day off just exploring the forests. They both froze in the middle of their game of tag when they heard the foreboding sound of horse hooves. Out of the scrubs burst one of the kingdom's messengers astride his horse looking very much out of breath. "My Sires! The Reficules are coming! They plan to strike the Kingdom by midnight tonight!" The man leapt off his horse and gave the reigns to the two kings who promptly mounted and rode off to the Kingdom.

Within half an hour of reaching the kingdom boundaries the military and council had joined together in the town hall where the leaders and spokespeople chattered nervously. Martyn brought the meeting to order with a sharp bang on the table.

"We all know this day was coming and we all know what we will have to do. The military will play the forerunners in this battle to save the kingdom but it is you, the spokespeople are who will save the people. Each of you take stock of what we will need and, using the census, make sure anyone not fighting is hidden away."

Toby spoke up. "Martyn and I will be leading the swordspeople into battle through the forest. Archers will be on the walls raining death from above. The unarmed will work closely with the medical staff. I want everyone fighting out on the field as soon as possible."

Toby dismissed everyone and watched as they hurried to prepare for battle. Would it be enough?

The reficules were definitely coming now, one of the spotters had sounded the horn warning the rest before fleeing to the ranks. The Archers were already taking their positions behind the crenulations, their bows armed and waiting. The first started to appear with poofs of strange purple smoke. On Toby's mark the archers began to fire. The first shots came down and missed their marks because the Reficules teleported away. They had to keep re-aiming to hit the Reficules. A whoop sounded as the first of them fell but, within the next minute, an arrow pierced the armour of one of the Kingdom's archers. He fell too, his death was the marker for the archers to pick up their speed, arrows flew down to the reficules who swarmed and teleported thick and fast. They were going to breach the outside walls soon. The archers had the order to flee. They did so and the first of the walls of the Kingdom came tumbling down.

Toby ran with the archers as the last person entered the wooden city hall. He watched as the doors were bolted and locked before making his way into the forest. He climbed the tallest tree and watched as the reficules took over the village... he felt useless as the monster set fire to the Town hall... There was little he could do now...

He sat there waiting for them to gather around the door expecting the town people to run out of the burning building. He counted to 3 before giving the signal... On the other side of the City Martyn activate the redstone lever and the Town hall blew up, taking out the Reficules and exposing the tunnel underneath the hall where the villagers escaped.

They were safe...for now.

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**I hope you enjoyed that! If you have any corrections just tell me!**


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